Fragrant Gift
I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Philippians 4:18, ESV
I was researching the internet on the subject of fragrant offerings. What brought me to this research was the words Paul used in the verse above when he said that the offering received from Epaphroditus was a “fragrant offering”. I felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to look up why Paul would choose to use those words.
I found that the same word is used in Ephesians 5:1-2 to speak of the offering of Christ. “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” I was beginning to understand that how we give from our heart and the sacrifices we make determines how our offerings go up before God. I also remembered that in the book of Leviticus there are scriptures describing sacrifices God required from the Israelites as a “pleasing aroma” to Him. Although none of those sacrifices could pay for sins, they served as a temporary covering.
I felt like the Holy Spirit prompted me to look up Epaphroditus. I found that Paul writes in Philippians 2:25-30, “I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.” Epaphroditus’ offering was a fragrant aroma because of the self-sacrifice that he made to Paul. He cared more about serving Paul than bringing pleasure to his own life.
Finally, I was led to this article that gave another look at the sweet aroma of a gift to God: https://www.ccef.org/a-fragrant-offering/ I pray that it blesses you as it did me.
Father,
Thank you that you know the heart of man. Absolutely no thought can be hidden from you. I pray that our hearts will be transformed in such a way that in everything we do, every action we take, it is a sweet aroma pleasing to you. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
Affirmations: Matthew 10:20; Luke 24:32; Ephesians 6:19, Isaiah 55:11
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